full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Bob Wiltfong: How to take the BS out of business speak

Unscramble the Blue Letters


We'll get there. We'll get there.

(Laughter)

You've read my script. You know where I'm going. What does "drinking the Kool-Aid" -- What does that mean?

(Audience) scmubciung to peer pressure.

Succumbing to peer pressure. It's kind of in there. It's accepting something without qoetiusn. Just sort of like I did with you guys, saying, "Stomp your feet." You're just like, "Sure, whatever," right? Yes. And to the balcony's response, here's the origin sotry of "drinking the Kool-Aid." And the reason why I bring this up is because it's important to know the oiigrn story of some of our BS. Jim Jones is a cult ldaeer. He's adorable. 1978. He has a great idea. All of his hundreds of followers, he's going to give them a delicious drink. That's wnofdeurl of Jim Jones to do. He flavors it with something called Flavor Aid, which is popular at the time. It's later confused in history with the more popular flavored drink in America cleald Kool-Aid. But Jim made a bad mistake with that Kool-Aid, man. He'd laced it with cyanide. Hundreds of fwlolores drink the cadyine and die. 1978. That's the origin story of "drinking the Kool-Aid." The reason I bring that up is because a European audience, you're like, "What is Kool-Aid?" Also, if you're born beyond 1978, you may not even know what this is. Who is this guy? What are you tilkang about? Mass suicide? A cult with Kool-Aid? "Drinking the Kool-Aid." And there are other BS phsreas that fall in this category. We've lost the origin story, it gets muddied. Think of TED Talk. The internet. If you type “who founded TED?” or “where did TED come from?,” it's a porsen on the internet. It's Technology, Entertainment, Design. That's what TED takls stands for. Think of the BS phrase "piggyback." You ever seen two pigs with one pig on its back?

Open Cloze


We'll get there. We'll get there.

(Laughter)

You've read my script. You know where I'm going. What does "drinking the Kool-Aid" -- What does that mean?

(Audience) __________ to peer pressure.

Succumbing to peer pressure. It's kind of in there. It's accepting something without ________. Just sort of like I did with you guys, saying, "Stomp your feet." You're just like, "Sure, whatever," right? Yes. And to the balcony's response, here's the origin _____ of "drinking the Kool-Aid." And the reason why I bring this up is because it's important to know the ______ story of some of our BS. Jim Jones is a cult ______. He's adorable. 1978. He has a great idea. All of his hundreds of followers, he's going to give them a delicious drink. That's _________ of Jim Jones to do. He flavors it with something called Flavor Aid, which is popular at the time. It's later confused in history with the more popular flavored drink in America ______ Kool-Aid. But Jim made a bad mistake with that Kool-Aid, man. He'd laced it with cyanide. Hundreds of _________ drink the _______ and die. 1978. That's the origin story of "drinking the Kool-Aid." The reason I bring that up is because a European audience, you're like, "What is Kool-Aid?" Also, if you're born beyond 1978, you may not even know what this is. Who is this guy? What are you _______ about? Mass suicide? A cult with Kool-Aid? "Drinking the Kool-Aid." And there are other BS _______ that fall in this category. We've lost the origin story, it gets muddied. Think of TED Talk. The internet. If you type “who founded TED?” or “where did TED come from?,” it's a ______ on the internet. It's Technology, Entertainment, Design. That's what TED _____ stands for. Think of the BS phrase "piggyback." You ever seen two pigs with one pig on its back?

Solution


  1. called
  2. talking
  3. origin
  4. question
  5. succumbing
  6. phrases
  7. talks
  8. wonderful
  9. cyanide
  10. leader
  11. person
  12. followers
  13. story

Original Text


We'll get there. We'll get there.

(Laughter)

You've read my script. You know where I'm going. What does "drinking the Kool-Aid" -- What does that mean?

(Audience) Succumbing to peer pressure.

Succumbing to peer pressure. It's kind of in there. It's accepting something without question. Just sort of like I did with you guys, saying, "Stomp your feet." You're just like, "Sure, whatever," right? Yes. And to the balcony's response, here's the origin story of "drinking the Kool-Aid." And the reason why I bring this up is because it's important to know the origin story of some of our BS. Jim Jones is a cult leader. He's adorable. 1978. He has a great idea. All of his hundreds of followers, he's going to give them a delicious drink. That's wonderful of Jim Jones to do. He flavors it with something called Flavor Aid, which is popular at the time. It's later confused in history with the more popular flavored drink in America called Kool-Aid. But Jim made a bad mistake with that Kool-Aid, man. He'd laced it with cyanide. Hundreds of followers drink the cyanide and die. 1978. That's the origin story of "drinking the Kool-Aid." The reason I bring that up is because a European audience, you're like, "What is Kool-Aid?" Also, if you're born beyond 1978, you may not even know what this is. Who is this guy? What are you talking about? Mass suicide? A cult with Kool-Aid? "Drinking the Kool-Aid." And there are other BS phrases that fall in this category. We've lost the origin story, it gets muddied. Think of TED Talk. The internet. If you type “who founded TED?” or “where did TED come from?,” it's a person on the internet. It's Technology, Entertainment, Design. That's what TED Talks stands for. Think of the BS phrase "piggyback." You ever seen two pigs with one pig on its back?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
business speak 10
origin story 5
white guys 3
oil executives 3
big words 3
speak bs 2
common language 2
business world 2
business meeting 2
express fresh 2
fresh ideas 2
stale business 2
business cliches 2
peer pressure 2
jim jones 2
bs phrase 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
express fresh ideas 2
stale business cliches 2

Important Words


  1. accepting
  2. adorable
  3. aid
  4. america
  5. audience
  6. bad
  7. born
  8. bring
  9. bs
  10. called
  11. category
  12. confused
  13. cult
  14. cyanide
  15. delicious
  16. design
  17. die
  18. drink
  19. entertainment
  20. european
  21. fall
  22. feet
  23. flavor
  24. flavored
  25. flavors
  26. followers
  27. founded
  28. give
  29. great
  30. guy
  31. guys
  32. history
  33. hundreds
  34. idea
  35. important
  36. internet
  37. jim
  38. jones
  39. kind
  40. laced
  41. laughter
  42. leader
  43. lost
  44. man
  45. mass
  46. mistake
  47. muddied
  48. origin
  49. peer
  50. person
  51. phrase
  52. phrases
  53. pig
  54. pigs
  55. popular
  56. pressure
  57. question
  58. read
  59. reason
  60. response
  61. script
  62. sort
  63. stands
  64. story
  65. succumbing
  66. suicide
  67. talk
  68. talking
  69. talks
  70. technology
  71. ted
  72. time
  73. type
  74. wonderful